-
By:
Sinan Berisha
- 15 October 2025 23:26
- Share to:
“Ravel 150 – Violin & Cello in Dialogue”, was the title of the concert that brought the masterful playing of violinist Marko Pop Ristov from North Macedonia and cellist Isak Haračić from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The concert was a kind of dedication to the creativity of the French composer, the interpretation of his works, and preceded “In the Web” by Beata Soderberg Quin, which plays with the sounds of time and premiered in Pristina as part of “KamerFest”.
"A complex musical language of globalization" was considered the work that opened the penultimate night of the 24th edition of the international chamber music festival "KamerFest". And along with it, Tuesday evening was also characterized by the sonata by the French composer Maurice Ravel. In the ice hall of the University Library amphitheater, where an electric heater made more noise than heat, the harmony of the sounds of the violin and cello echoed among the small audience.
It is a marked evening for the 150th anniversary of Ravel's birth.
The title “Ravel 150 – violin & cello in dialogue” shows the harmonious dialogue where the elegance and emotion of Ravel’s music are intertwined. As the eighth concert out of nine in total this edition, the evening brought a fantastic duo from the Balkans, Marko Pop Ristov from North Macedonia and Isak Haračić from Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the two works played, they brought a more modern freshness to this year’s chamber music marathon, which is intertwined with the old.
Beata Soderberg Quin is the composer and cellist whose work was performed at the opening of the eighth night, Tuesday. Titled “In the Web,” the work is her newest composition and is coming to Pristina for the first time. Its six movements: “In the Web,” “The Cloud,” “Accept All Cookies,” “New Software,” “Bugs,” and “Icons” are performed with a light calm, the silence in the hall making them even more sensitive. This work restores meaning to expressions and concepts that are commonly used today. The composer is influenced by her traditional Swedish heritage, and that heritage is mixed in acoustic dance with her passion for tango music, thus satisfying the alternative view of today.
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of French composer Maurice Ravel, the “Sonata for Violin and Cello M. 73” composed in 1922, after World War I, was also played. Harsh and emotionally charged, the work is dedicated to Claude Debussy, who had died a few years before it was composed. At the same time, the work is also a meditation on the fragility of peace and the scars left by war. With its four tempos: “Allegro”, “Tres vif”, “Lent” and “Vif, avec entrain”, for about a quarter of an hour the uniform harmony of the combination of violin and cello was felt.
Macedonian Marco Pop Ristov started playing the violin with violinist Sihana Badivuku and later studied in London. He has appeared as a soloist in many orchestral concerts. Both of them are also members of the “No Borders Orchestra”, an ensemble that includes young musicians from all over the Balkans and that a month ago also performed in Pristina, as part of the Balkan “Turning Point” tour.
Marco Pop Ristov has called Ravel's work almost impossible, while showing that he has close collegial relationships with the young composer.
"The first piece is by Beata, she is a friend of mine, in a way it is very personal, I am proud of her as a musician and as a composer, so it was an intimate work. The music is contemporary, but not dissonant, it does not alienate the audience, but warms the hearts. Ravel's work is masterful, I do not remember when I heard it for the first time, but I thought it was impossible to learn and stage in the game, but as soon as we played it and the concert was enjoyed enough", said the Macedonian violinist.
On September 4, the concert of the ensemble "No Borders Orchestra" was held in Pristina. The orchestra included instrumentalists from all the countries of the Western Balkans. He considered the concert then different from the one on Tuesday.
"It's all chamber music and I like this music more, a little bit of orchestral music. Everything revolves around interactivity, listening and sharing the performance with others. In the 'No Borders Orchestra' concerts, everything has been different, each piece required different energy from each other, so it's different, but the essence is the same, it all revolves around chamber music", added Marco Pop Ristov.
On the other hand, Isak Haračić, who combined sounds with the cello, is a Bosnian, born in Belgrade. He studied in Sarajevo and has performed at various festivals in Europe and America. He said he feels happy that despite the difficulty, they have brought the performance of Ravel's work.
"I feel very happy, the acoustics were very good, the hall as well, and the people who came to the concert. The repertoire is not heard very often. Beata and Ravel, which is quite difficult, so people don't usually play it, but we decided to do it. It was a little difficult, but I'm happy that we did it," he said.
From the audience, violinist Mrika Hoxha considered the performance as special, which came as a duet. The harmony between the duo seemed almost like a quartet.
"It was a very special concert, because it is a duo that you don't see very often in concerts and they have a certain chemistry between them, that is, two instruments sound like four people, like a quartet, and the works were more interesting, which makes it feel a little bigger as a duet, not just a duo, but like a small orchestra," she said.
The artistic director of "KamerFest", Sihana Badivuku, also indicated that these two works were premieres in Kosovo, like many of the works that have come to this edition of the festival.
"Tonight the audience had the pleasure of hearing two premiere works, because in addition to the Swedish composer who granted the copyright to perform this work, which has not yet been published. This is a Kosovo premiere, and Ravel's sonata was also a premiere. I am happy that in this edition we have had many premiere works," she said.
On Wednesday, when the 24th edition of the festival closed, the final night brought a performance in honor of the anniversary of composer Shostakovich with Romain Garioud on cello, Daniela Dikova on piano, and as a guest artist, Sihana Badivuku on violin.